The Silver Mexican Peso and the Roman Denarius

09-28-2006 • Hugo Salinas Price

By careful when looking to purchase a 'silver' Mexican peso. The Roman emperors did not have enough cash to pay for the expenses of the Empire. They had to pay the bureaucracy, they had to pay for "bread and circuses" for the rowdy Roman population and importantly, they had to pay the armies that kept the barbarian invaders at bay. Taxes brought in insufficient revenue and there was only one thing they could do - reduce the silver content of the coinage. During the late Roman Empire bronze coins were ingeniously silver-plated to resemble silver coins; a little rubbing revealed the bronze. Mexican monetary history contains some interesting parallels to Roman history..... In 1957 we had a new peso with silver, all 1.6 grams of it. A little crumb of silver in the peso! This peso coin circulated for 10 years, until at last the combination of our own inflation (printing of money and expanding bank accounts) and world inflation made even this tiny crumb of silver worth more than one peso